My catharsis quilt got a third place ribbon in the county fair last week, and a lady wanted to buy it. It's not for sale.
I believe every quilt has a story - who, what, where, when, why. Here's the story behind this quilt.
I made this quilt as a healing catharsis in 2018 after a nasty quilter who until then had been a friend, criticized my work at my book launch brunch in front of a room full of my quilty friends
I designed my foundation paper pieced alphabet specifically so I could make the BE KIND block for the center. The heart block is from my Adventurously Epic Sampler.
Making the quilt was a very satisfying and healing experience, I hand embroidered messages encouraging kindness into one of the quilt borders.
I designed the text print background fabric specifically for this project and had it printed on Spoonflower.com the text is about the two ways quilters can respond to each other's work - positively or negatively.
The quilt she disparaged was my Adventurously Epic Sampler so I designed a background fabric on Spoonflower using the outline drawing of that quilt. I used that fabric to frame the center block on-point.
The quilting on my Adventurously Epic Sampler is meandering loops which she referred to as a "cop out" so I quilted this catharsis quilt using that quilting pattern.
The heart FPP block is free to download on my website.
The idea to make this quilt was suggested by a friend of mine, I'm so pleased she suggested it!
The idea to enter it in the county fair was mine, a small part of me wanted some sort of revenge on the nasty quilter by rising above her gutter antics and focusing on how kindness could've changed the situation.
The funniest part is she entered a quilt in the same category and got fourth place 🤣 so the quilt I made to heal from her nastiness, has beaten her quilt.
I don't intend to enter any future quilts in the fair because I don't really believe in quilt judging. I prefer to learn a quilt's story and accept that the quilter enjoyed the process of making it. But for this year the fair suited my purposes and aided in my healing process.
